Jack-Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon and Natalie Dormer as Margaery Tyrell

Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

Kit Harington as Jon Snow

Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister

Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

Clive Russell as Brynden "The Blackfish" Tully

Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

Maisie Williams as Arya Stark

Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

Michelle Fairley as Catelyn Stark

Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

Nikolaj Coster Waldau as Jaime Lannister

Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

Paul Kaye as Thoros of Myr

Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister

Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

Richard Dormer as Beric Dondarrion

Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

Richard Madden as Robb Stark and Oona Chaplin as Talisa Maegyr

Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

Rose Leslie as Ygritte

Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark

Photo: Keith Bernstein/HBO

Stephen Dillane as Stannis Baratheon

Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

Thomas Brodie Sangster as Jojen Reed

Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

At last year’s Comic-Con International everyone got pretty excited about the announcement of the new cast members coming to HBO’s Game of Thrones — and nobody was more excited by the casting of Diana Rigg than George R.R. Martin himself.

“I flash back to my youth and all those days I spent watching The Avengers and … Emma Peel, wow!” A Song of Ice and Fire author Martin told the crowd in Hall H. “That’s pretty amazing.”

Check out the characters — old and new — in the gallery above. Spring is coming, and with it we’ll doubtless be getting more teases of the show — like actual new characters moving and talking and stuff — before the season 3 premiere. In the meantime, we wait.

Game of Thrones returns to HBO on March 31, but we’re already taking bets on who dies in season 3 now, if you’re interested.